Sundry Works Help · Overview

What's due and what's unfinished

The first tab: what's coming up, what's still to do, what's unfinished.

What it's for

The Overview is a single page that answers three questions without you having to go looking: what's coming up, what's still unfinished, and how much you've been making. It gathers the Calendar, your Lists, and your paintings into five cards, and every line on it is a shortcut into the tab that owns it.

It doesn't hold anything of its own. Everything on it is read from the other tabs, so it can never disagree with them, and there is nothing on it you can break.

If you'd rather not have it

The Overview is the first tab along the bar. The app no longer opens on it - it opens on Paintings, because that is the catalogue itself and the Overview is a summary of what is half finished. The Overview is one press away whenever you want it. If you would rather not have the tab at all, go to the Configuration tab, find the "Optional tabs" card, and untick Overview, and it disappears straight away.

Switching it off deletes nothing - your calendar, lists and paintings are all untouched, because the Overview never stored anything of its own. Tick it again whenever you want it back.

At a glance

Four numbers across the top left:

• Paintings - how many are in your catalogue altogether.
• Sold - how many of those are marked sold.
• Next 30 days - how many calendar entries fall inside the next month.
• Open tasks - how many items are still unticked across all your lists put together.

By category

Underneath those four numbers is a count of your paintings in each category - Underwood, Steamfolk, Modi Cats, Steamscapes, and any others you've set up. They're listed in the same order as on the Paintings tab, so the two read the same way, and a category you've created but not filed anything under yet shows a nought rather than vanishing.

Paintings you haven't filed anywhere are counted at the bottom as "No category". If a painting is still filed under a category you've since renamed or removed, that category stays on the end of the list so its count isn't quietly lost.

The whole block only appears once you have categories in play. Set them up on the Paintings tab under "Edit categories".

How much you've made

Under the categories is a count of your paintings over time. Four numbers first: how many this month, how many this year, how many in the last twelve months, and your best month ever, with the month named underneath it.

Then two rows of bars. The first is month by month for the last year, one line each. Months where you finished nothing still get a line - a quiet month is part of the picture. The second row is a line for every year you've painted in, newest at the top. Each row of bars is drawn against its own busiest line, so a full bar means "the most in this row", not the most on the card.

It counts on the date the painting is signed - the month and year you fill in on the Paintings tab - not the day you typed it into the app. So a piece finished in March and catalogued in June is counted in March. And if you type up years of old work in one sitting, it still spreads across the years you actually painted it.

A painting dated only to its year is counted in that year, but in no month. So the two rows of bars can differ by a painting or two. That's on purpose - guessing at a month would file the work in the wrong one.

A painting with no date on it isn't counted at all. If you have any, a line at the foot of the card says how many, and takes you to the Paintings tab to fill them in.

Up next

The next five things on your calendar, soonest first, each with its kind (Show, Deadline, Event, Other) and its countdown. Anything inside a week is highlighted, the same as on the Calendar tab itself. Click any of them to go to the Calendar.

Still to do

Every list that still has items left on it, with how far along it is ("4 of 12 done") and the next few outstanding items spelled out underneath, so you can see what's actually left without opening it. Section headings are left out of that preview - the items under them say more.

Click a list and it opens on the Lists tab, ready to tick off.

Needs attention

Every painting that still has work on it. Each row is led by a small picture of the work - a plain framed square if you haven't added an image yet - and carries the same nine progress ticks as the Paintings tab - Image, Details, Caption, Story, Social, Card, Papers, Post, Reel - along with the painting's details and how far along it is, so you can see the whole state of a piece without opening it. Click one and it opens on the Paintings tab, loaded and ready.

The order puts the most urgent first: anything missing an essential (its image, its details, or a story) rises to the top, then whatever has most left to do. Eight are shown at a time, with a link to the rest on the Paintings tab.

A painting drops off this list the moment it's finished - and an unsold one counts as finished without a certificate, since that isn't due until it sells.

The rest of the Help

Start here

• Getting started with Sundry Works - What Sundry Works does and how the tabs fit together.
• Using Sundry Works on your phone - Setting up the phone, whether or not there is a computer as well.

Your catalogue

• What's due and what's unfinished - The first tab: what's coming up, what's still to do, what's unfinished.
• Cataloguing your paintings - Your catalog - add paintings and open the one you're working on.
• Reviewing everything one painting makes - Everything the open painting makes, on one page, with the one decision each needs.
• How to price a painting consistently - Work out a consistent price for the open painting.
• Tracking what sold and who bought it - What sold, who took it home, and what it brought in.
• Printing show labels and a portfolio - More than one at a time: a whole show's labels, or a portfolio to send.

Making things from a painting

• Writing a story for a painting - Generate a written story for the painting and keep the best one.
• Making a printed card for a painting - Lay out the printed card for the painting.
• How to make a certificate of authenticity - A painting's two printed documents: its certificate, and the label for its back.
• Web-sized copies of a painting's photo - Export web-sized copies of the painting's photo.
• Branded posts of your paintings - Branded static posts for Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook.
• Making a reel of a painting - Build the vertical reel frame and video for social media.
• Designing an artist's business card - The card you hand out, laid out down to the last millimetre.

Running the business

• Setting up your artist brand - Set up once: your identity, brand assets, colours, and AI key.
• An address book for galleries and collectors - A simple address book for galleries, collectors, suppliers, and more.
• Checklists for shows and studio jobs - Reusable checklists for shows, errands, and anything you repeat.
• A calendar for shows and deadlines - Shows, deadlines, and events, with a countdown to each one.
• All your post comments in one list - What people said on your posts, from every platform, in one list.

Connections and setup

• Posting to Instagram and Facebook - Connect your accounts so you can post directly from Sundry Works.
• Posting your paintings to Threads - A second Meta connection, separate from Instagram and Facebook.
• Posting your paintings to Bluesky - The easiest connection of the four - a handle and an app password.
• Scheduling posts to go out later - Line a post up now and let it go out later, with the computer off.
• Configuring Sundry Works - Where everything plugs in: your social accounts, your website, your AI service, and where the catalogue lives.